The Pencil Rain
by Larry Cimora
Summary: The story of Sonic's quest to keep all of the pencils from falling. My first work, please start at Section 6 for a summary it gets you past my bad writing.
1. Chapter 1

The epic first chapter of…

**The Pencil Rain**

A story involving Sonic and Co. facing a great and very odd threat…

Disclaimer: I am not a part of SEGA or They Might Be Giants, so please don't take legal action.

Outside Station Square

1230 hours

As the sun bore down on the desert where about a hundred troops were doing drills, one particular soldier was having a hard time staying up in the sand. It had been several hours, and he felt like he was going to slip and stumble any second now.

"Uh, uh, AAAH!" he yelled as he fell down. Since there had been very little evidence of anything but sand for a while, the drill sergeant told him to get up.

"Lee! What are you doing in the sand? Get up!"

"Yes, sir! OW!"

"What is it?"

"I think I broke my ankle, sir!"

"OK, let me take a closer look. Yep, it's pretty banged up. Why is there a rock out here in the middle of nowhere?" the drill sergeant said (which, considering the yelling that people of his occupation do, is actually remarkable.) "MEDIC!" A medic was immediately there to take a look while the drill sergeant yelled back at the others that "there is no slacking in the army, get back to it."

A wrap was on the injury in a matter of minutes, but during this span of time the soldier was looking upwards through his binoculars at the sky to get his mind off of the pain. The sun, the blue, the clouds, and- something else yellow, and interesting. He had to tell his officer. Before the others got any farther, he yelled as hard as he could, "SIR!" He could not believe what he saw. It amazed him. It frightened and confused him.

From across the way, he heard "WHAT IS IT?"

"I WOULD LIKE TO CONFIRM THAT I HAVE SEEN PENCILS IN THE SKY! AND THEY'RE SHARPENED!"

Before long he was back, though none too pleased. "You better not be pulling my leg," he grumbled as he looked skyward. "I can't believe it," he said in stunned disbelief. "Those ARE pencils! I'm reporting this." And so the drill sergeant was before long calling up his superior about the pencils.

I swear, these are sharpened pencils, floating up there!"

"Yes, yes, I'll take a look," said his superior, clearly conveying with tone that he thought the man on the other end was a nutcase. After hanging up, he looked out the window and got a telescope. He was stunned, shocked, frightened, and confused, the emotional equivalent of being hit by a car. "Oh my goodness, he was right. I have to call my boss!"

And so it was that the pencil story worked its way to the top of the ranks before dinner. Military intelligence, contacted by General Tibbett, prepared a news report to be released the following day. The damage report that resulted from a conjecture on if the pencils would fall ended with a statement, kept out of the press report, that the pencils had a 40 chance of falling in the next week, and that they had the potential to cause billions of dollars in damage and thousands of deaths.

Presidential Residence

2245 hours

The President was just about to call it a day when there was a call. "Why is General Tibbett calling at this time of day?" the President wondered aloud as he picked up the phone.

"Sir, I have some terrible news to tell you," Tibbett said.

"What?"

"There are pencils in the sky. And they're sharpened. They are currently the world's greatest threat." Tibbett then proceeded to give the full damage report should any pencils fall. The President listened in disbelief. As the general concluded, he said, "The press report is being released tomorrow, but in the meantime, we have no idea what to do to actively combat the pencil threat. We are working on it, though. Goodbye, sir."

The President hung up and thought, "I need the cabinet alerted. I also, well, no, what could he do about it? Maybe his friend can come up with an invention, like he always does. Sonic, we need you right now."

So, yes, I admit it starts off slow and it reads like a prologue, but the action is guaranteed in the second epic chapter of… THE PENCIL RAIN. And now, an explanation. Yes, this is my first fanfic, but I don't believe that is an excuse for sloppiness. This is also my first story. I decided to go with an original concept- take a song and put it into the context of a videogame. I thought "Pencil Rain" by They Might Be Giants would be perfect, because it has a feel of adventure in it, and I thought it would be great to take this concept and place it in the Sonic world, where there is no shortage of great threats. Besides, it sounds funny. Please submit reviews and I'll have something else up some other time. Larry


	2. Installment 2

The epic second installment of…

**The Pencil Rain**

Times Station (Central Station Square)

530 hours

"PENCIL THREAT! PENCIL THREAT! READ ALL ABOUT IT!"

As groggy businessmen got up to go to their jobs, the news broke. Within minutes, it had become the world's top story. Every station had pencils; they were inescapable. The weathermen had to apologize for not having a pencil icon ready. The planet was hysterical, despite the press report's statement not to panic. Of course, as people ran through the streets, Sonic had no idea.

The blue blur was instead running at incredible speed around the canyons far outside of the city. Tails had given him a deluxe cell phone the previous week for the purpose of getting emergency calls. Sonic had the ring all the way up so he could hear over the wind in his face. However, it was as of yet unused, so he really had no clue how powerful the speakers were. Suddenly, in the middle of running, the deafening ring caused him to lose concentration and fall over before he flipped it open and mashed the down arrow on the volume control.

"Yes…Mr. President, what…is it?" Sonic barely managed to say in between coughing up dust that he had kicked up and getting up to pay proper attention.

"Sonic. We are in a very dangerous situation. There are pencils in the sky. And they're sharpened. If they fall, grievous damage could be caused to the world. I need you to help in stopping the pencil threat."

"WHAT? I mean, how can I help?"

"We have no plans as of yet because of the peculiar nature of this situation. I know you may be able to help. Over and out."

Sonic pondered, "But what in the world could I do? Tails probably has some invention he can make, and if not, he knows how to build it." He immediately set off for a nearby area where Tails said he would be testing the landing gear he finally put on his Tornado plane in the X-winged mode.

After getting lost in the canyons (Sonic rarely went that way anyway) he finally spotted a blue-and yellow speck in the sky. At the same time, Tails noticed a blue speck below, standing out against the brown that was visible for miles. Slowly coming as far down as he could, Tails tried to listen to Sonic yelling to him about the news.

"TAILS! I GOTTA TELL YOU SOMETHING!"

"WHAT IS IT?"

"THE PRESIDENT JUST CALLED SAYING THERE ARE PENCILS IN THE SKY! AND THEY"RE SHARPENED!"

"OK! I HAVE TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK WHEN I GET BACK TO THE WORKSHOP! I CAN'T LAND HERE! HOP ON!" So Sonic got on the plane and headed for the workshop, a nondescript little building out on a hill.

"So there are pencils? In the sky?" Tails said. "Man, I know what happens when you drop a penny from a skyscraper, so pencils up that high have to be really dangerous."

"Do you have any way to stop it?" Sonic inquired as the two entered the building.

"Not at the moment, this is going to be hard to figure out. I need some time. You said there's a good chance within the week?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Wow." And at that point all sorts of possibilities occurred. Umbrellas? No, they'd weaken from pencil abuse. Collect all of the pencils? No, there's too many. Safety net? That'd be up a little high, no place to hang it from. Destroy them? Only more pencil fragments to deal with. Send them into space? You know, that might be crazy enough to work. "Sonic, these pencils may have to enter orbit. They're up higher than rain normally is; if they get a big push it could save the planet."

"But how in the world do we put pencils in space?" was the reply.

"Yeah, I have an idea, but it's going to be tough to do. If the pencils are nudged out of place, they will fall. Of course, if we use a little Chaos Control…"

"Oh really?" Sonic replied. "Well! I have one!"

"HOW DID YOU GET THAT?" was all Tails could exclaim in shock.

"Remember defeating Chaos a month ago? I had the fortune to keep one!" Sonic said.

"Wow. Completely forgot. It all passes so fast. I remember the city just got rebuilt," whispered Tails in astonishment that he had already forgotten.

"Why don't we get started then?" Sonic said with half eagerness and half impatience.

"You're right. I have no idea what people are doing. Most likely panicking their heads off. Let's get going!" Tails replied with the same mix.

All Sonic did was step outside when he noticed a plane. "Aside from the Tornado, nothing should be flying through such heavy, um, pencils," Sonic thought as the slow realization came to mind…

It was Eggman's plane!

Suspense and some actual action (I know, it's tough to write fight scenes with inanimate objects) are to come in Episode 3 of… THE PENCIL RAIN.


	3. Episode 3

The epic third episode of…

**The Pencil Rain**

Somewhere near Tails's workshop

1300 hours

"Eggman! YOU DID THIS!" Sonic yelled as he prepared for Tails to get out his plane for an aerial battle. However, Tails's head was still spinning with trying to find a better alternative to using Chaos Control, getting noticed, and getting unwanted attention from the same Eggman who happened to be floating overhead that moment.

"Hey, well if it isn't Sonic down there," Dr. Eggman said to himself surprisingly without any indication of being diabolic. "These pencils are getting extremely difficult to look around; I can't even look up at the sky to observe the planets. Especially when I want to observe the ARK. I guess I might go down and fight him because it's getting too hard to fly up here." Eggman, sitting in his trademark floating command sphere, pushed the "DESCEND" button. Resuming his normal diabolicalness as he floated downward, he said, "Sonic, if it isn't you. You aren't prepared to fight me now, so I can use this chance to finish you off! And, huh? You have an emerald too? Prepare to fight!" He took this opportunity to reveal missile launchers. It seemed, though, as this was all too predictable. Eggman used machine-related attack, Sonic outran the weapons, Sonic went after sphere, sequence repeated 2 more times, Eggman yelled "Curses!" before speeding away. It had been done too many times, and it could be renewed at a later date. Right now, he wanted to mix it up a bit. "Sonic, have any last words?" Eggman asked tauntingly.

"Your pencil scheme is going to fail, Eggman!" was the all too predictable reply. Sonic didn't expect the rebuttal, though…

"What? I didn't put those pencils there!"

"HUH?" Now Sonic was amazed. He would have guessed that Eggman was bluffing, but he knew from previous adventures that Eggman always told his schemes to him because his nemesis-as-usual always thought his plan would work. "You…didn't put the pencils in the sky?"

"Not at all, Sonic. They've been bugging me as much as you. I want them gone as well. I don't have enough time to get force fields up over my base, so I have no choice but to stop them. If they destroy the planet, we're going like everybody else."

"So… Hey Tails! Eggman here is going to help with the pencils!" Sonic called into the workshop.

"WHAT!" Tails ran out to see Eggman there, with Sonic still holding an emerald without the doctor even attempting to grab it.

"Yes, I'm burying the hatchet," Eggman admitted, almost sighing. "We'll dig it back up later."

"Alright," Tails said knowing that circumstances had just turned weirder than if pencils were flying. Wait, they were… He continued, "If you don't mind I think that even with one emerald we can't do it. Our friends may have some more, and if we build an amplifying machine and do the sky in chunks, we can beat time."

Sonic agreed to find anyone through which an emerald had passed in the week prior to the final battle with Perfect Chaos, while Eggman and Tails worked out a blueprint for a machine. The thing that became known to Sonic soon after he set off was that these were no ordinary No. 2 pencils. They were beginning to have an uncanny influence on certain individuals…

To be continued in the epic fourth act of… THE PENCIL RAIN. Who are these individuals? Why do pencils affect them? And why don't we use No. 1 pencils? Keep reading.


	4. Act 4

The epic fourth act of…

**The Pencil Rain**

(This is where it starts to get interesting…)

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with SEGA, They Might be Giants or their record company, and anyone else except for my original character, Malachite.

Green Forest/White Jungle/Mystic Ruins (aka lost…)

230 hours

"Where in the world is everybody? Where am I, most importantly?" Sonic wondered as he trudged through what seemed like the longest stretch of forest he'd ever been in. Usually it took him around 5 minutes to find his way out of one of these. He had already been here for quite a while, and meanwhile those pencils were ready to drop at any moment…

He finally found a place of interest, but not in a good way. This was not Angel Island, this was not the house of a certain large purple cat with a pet frog, no, this was sludge. It wouldn't actively suck the unlucky trespasser in, of course, but it wouldn't let you go so easy either. Sonic had had the misfortune of putting his shoe into the mystery mix that appeared too be a tar-like pool that stretched on for what seemed to be a mile. Of course, it was the same color as everything else given the time, so who knows how long it actually was.

Sonic had no luck with his shoe. It seemed as if his right foot was going to be planted there until the pencils fell. The only way he would escape would be to either leave his shoe or dig in the sludge, which could easily backfire. As Sonic contemplated the situation, the existence of a vine became apparent. All he had to do was pull it under the specially engineered and quite expensive shoe and pull his leg out. As Sonic pulled the vine underneath his shoe, he saw a green flicker off in the distance. There was no moon out, so what could be daring to shine in the pitch black night? Sonic realized that this flicker was at a far away point in a possibly lethal sludge pit of unknown depth and length. As his foot was finally set free, he also remembered that a great way to do shortcuts was to walk on top of the dense tree cover. Why hadn't he thought of something like that earlier? He had it now, so it wasn't that important. He climbed the tree the best way he could- with a well-aimed Spin Dash- and checked for a flicker while standing on the top.

The flicker was getting faster and faster, and brighter as well. There was no way that those could be fireflies, especially with the way that they started to synchronize and stay in place. Finally, after about a minute, they stayed on all the way. The entire area was lit up, and it appeared that a marmot was floating in the middle of it. Her eyes were the source of the eerie green light, and the pit surrounding her was actually small. She was gray-furred with a white muzzle, slightly shorter than Sonic, and with white gloves and a dark green dress that fell below her feet. She had hair that ended above her shoulders, and she was floating as if it was natural, in a standing position. After she had floated there a while, she moved slightly in Sonic's direction. Several trees sprang up immediately on the side of the pit across from Sonic, while the tree he stood on shrank into the sludge in a split second. It didn't take long for Sonic to realize his tree was disappearing, but he was already halfway down before he managed to jump to another tree.

"Holy chili dog, I barely got out of that one," Sonic said, still startled by the sudden shrinking of the… tree doesn't start with S? Oh well. "She has to be upset, because her nature powers are showing their bad side right now." The only thing wrong right now was the pencil problem, so that had to be it. Sonic decided to take a risk (he'd taken much worse) and shouted, "Are the pencils bothering you?"

The marmot across the pond responded with a moment's hesitation, and then vines. Dashing out of the way, Sonic barely missed a vine swinging at him at full speed. He was slowed down considerably because of the lack of moonlight and the consideration of a safe landing with every dodge, compounded by the trees shrinking and reappearing with even a slight movement. Vine after vine seemed to slash across the black, even though there was really no place for the upper part of the vine to be connected to, or a plausible way for the vines to travel at such high velocity. Sonic realized that this called for action, but actually putting it into use would prove tricky.

The radius of the danger zone meant that a simple Homing Attack wouldn't reach her. He had sense that the pencils were the only reason for her behavior, so he didn't want to do too much damage. He decided on a quick Spin Dash across to bump into her and possibly jar her senses awake.

"Concentrate…jump…jump from side to side…avoid that big one…wait for it…GO!" Sonic thought as he got into position. A quick rev, and he was sent flying. The blue ball flew in a perfect arc headed for the mystery marmot halfway across. The tree was in position to catch him, and he was about to make contact. As moments passed in that lucky shot, one could almost hear the music playing…right until a vine smacked Sonic on the head, sending the ball of spikes straight into his target and then falling into the sludge.

The impact woke the marmot from her trance, and made her look around to see what damage she could have caused this time. She looked down to see a certain blue hedgehog passed out underneath her. The sludge was beginning to disappear, revealing earth and trees. She descended to pick him up and try to wake him up.

The next thing Sonic felt after being hit on the head with a thick vine was the sort of headache that made it feel like he had been hit on the head with a thick vine. He woke up to see a much kinder marmot than he previously dealt with; the same one, but without the vines. He grumbled, "Ow. It feels a lot like I just jot hit on the head with a thick vine."

"Oh, was I doing that again?" the marmot asked as she gave this hedgehog a yellow bottle. "Have this, it helps."

Sonic had some, and the moment he swallowed, the pain vanished. "Wow, that _does _help! I feel great!" He immediately hopped up and asked, confused, "Again? Does this happen often? Who are you? And what is that stuff made of?"

"One at a time," the marmot replied. "I'm Malachite. Who are you?"

"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."

"I could tell that. The hedgehog part, I mean," Malachite said in response to Sonic's trademark introduction. "I'm familiar with every variety of flora and fauna. That's why I can make things like that. And sadly, yes it has been happening lately. I always respond to events about a week in advance, but I don't know why. Perhaps it's to provide as a general warning sign of things to come. Anyway, I have never responded to anything this strongly. No, actually, come to think of it, I could tell that something was horribly wrong a month or so ago. That was worse."

"That was Perfect Chaos threatening to destroy the world with the power of the Emeralds," Sonic chimed in.

"Yes, I could tell, and I also knew it abruptly stopped. Why was that?"

"I defeated Perfect Chaos."

"Wow, you have to be… I thought that was impossible. We'll talk about it later. As I was saying, these events cause me to turn the immediate area into a horrible mess and make me aggressive."

"That's an understatement."

"I guess you're right. Even though I have nature powers, I can't seem to make out this threat. Nothing of natural origin caused this or is a part of it."

"I know what they are. They are pencils. And they're sharpened."

"What are pencils? I have never been outside the forest."

Sonic felt dumb for having to explain pencils to another clearly intelligent person/marmot, but he gave a good explanation anyway.

"Hmm. That explains the vision of a rain the color of daffodils killing everything underneath."

Sonic clearly thought that peaceful daffodils were a strange thing to use as part of a description of something that could very well do great harm…no, that would be a huge understatement. "So you're saying this couldn't be a freak accident of the skies?"

"No, I am very close to the sky. That is how I fly."

Before Sonic had to listen to more of this mumbo jumbo, he asked, "Is there anything you can do to help me stop the pencils?"

"In addition to plants and animals, I have a connection with the Chaos Emeralds. I could help you find them."

"That'd be great! Any advice?"

"Right now, all I can say is that there is a particularly nasty stretch of forest that way. Once you enter, any way you walk takes you deeper. The only way to exit is to walk backwards. Don't go that way. I suppose you may know someone that could have any?"

"Sure do." And so they walked off, with Malachite acting as a compass.

This is probably my most expansive work to date, and the point where the story really takes off. It only gets better from here, folks. I realize that anyone hoping to get a faithful Sonicky representation of Pencil Rain (the song) will be sorely disappointed. But that would simply be predictable and exceedingly short (the song runs around 2:20.) So please give me writing tips, and be prepared for more action, adventure, and uses of the word pencil in Part 5 of… THE PENCIL RAIN.


	5. Part 5

The epic fifth part of…

**The Pencil Rain**

Outside the forest of the Mystic Ruins

500 hours

"How did we get this far this fast? We're already out of there!" exclaimed Sonic as he and his new adventurer, Malachite, arrived at the edge of the forest. He walked several steps onward before he noticed something wrong. There wasn't anyone there. He had turned around to see Malachite standing at the edge of the trees, her hesitant nature noticeable. "You can't come?" Sonic asked, with head turned to try to encourage her to take a step forward.

"No, I can't," Malachite responded sadly. "I can't let anything happen to this forest while I'm away. You see, I protect it."

Sonic shrugged, and was about to say goodbye. But two important things slipped his mind. He immediately called back, "Hey!" upon noticing she was walking back into the verdant depths of the wood. "I need to tell you something!" Malachite instantly ran back, expecting a goodbye.

Sonic reasoned, about several yards distance away, "You know, anyone who hurts the forest won't have much time to anyway if you don't come with me. I need you to help save your forest, and everything else too. There's not a good chance all of the emeralds will be in the hands of the three people I have in mind. You can help me find the other emeralds. One of the people I'm searching for has the same problem as you do. He has to protect the Master Emerald and will stop at nothing to stay close to it and keep it from harm. Sometimes, though, he has to get away because the threat is on the outside. If you want to save the forest," Sonic concluded, "you may have to step out for a while."

Malachite was conflicted- and not because this new friend of hers, moments ago a ball of adventurous energy, was now being a completely different person. It was also because she realized she had to take her first step out of the forest that had been home for as long as she could remember. The trees that felt like a sister to her now had to share with the flat, forbidding dirt. She gathered resolve, and without any words to Sonic, she planted her foot on the grass, leaving behind the forest, reassuring herself, weak-kneed, almost scared. At least it was dark out, the pre-dawn almost like high noon spent underneath the trees.

She found confidence after that first step. She walked out towards the dirt and grass that formed the path to Angel Island. Sonic now knew the way, and Malachite realized the importance of this trip. She knew that it had been hard to track the locations of the emeralds, and that she could mostly tell that there was a strong presence coming from this spot. The Master Emerald had been confusing her, and if she knew what it was like, she could better pick out the other emerald locations.

Sonic walked carefully across the bridge leading to the island, again knowing that something was wrong. Where was Malachite? He looked back, not seeing her. He knew that something must have gone wrong, until Malachite appeared directly overhead. He remembered that she was floating not too long ago, but he didn't know it was part of her normal skill roster. He knew that several other people he knew were able to fly, but his newest acquaintance defied explanation. She had no wings, double tails, or even a flying position to use like Knuckles. She simply floated in midair. Before he reached a conclusion as to Malachite's hovering, he reached the end of the bridge. Malachite was at the end of the bridge, and Sonic immediately raced up the steps of the circular emerald shrine, now restored to pre-war conditions by Tikal. No reflection pool yet, no Chao, but there was steady progress. After climbing the steps, the pair found Knuckles at the top, in meditation, yet ready to strike at any moment.

Malachite took a step forward. She was past the pristine and faultless marble steps, taking a step towards the emerald, then another. Knuckles saw her coming, and mentally prepared to attack. Sonic was about to introduce Malachite, but Knuckles was already too far to turn back. He instantly sprang up and threw a flurry of punches at Malachite. Usually one of his foes would go down after a few seconds of that. Instead, Malachite didn't even have to dodge any of the punches. She instead flew straight up and flung a vine at high speed right over Knuckles' head. It barely missed, but because she wanted it to. She remembered that this was Sonic's friend, and she figured he wanted to protect the emerald, like she would protect her forest. She didn't know, however, that Knuckles could fly as well. As she waited for a reaction from the echidna below, she almost suffered a punch, as Knuckles had jumped over to one of the surrounding pillars and flown straight at her.

Sonic yelled at the top of his lungs, "STOP!" Suddenly Knuckles, already on the opposite pillar, ready to jump, spotted his longtime friend, although he was reluctant to admit their being friends. He said, "Sonic, how's it been going?"

"Well, not too well. Now stop trying to attack her and come over here." Knuckles agreed and jumped over to where the two now stood. Sonic continued, "Knuckles, this is Malachite. She guards the forest over there normally. Malachite, this is Knuckles, the friend I talked to you about." The two shook each others' hands awkwardly. Knuckles apologized- something very rare. Sonic then informed Knuckles of the events prior, including the fact that Eggman was working with them. He concluded, "So, if we don't collect emeralds, the pencils will destroy everything."

"I do have one emerald, but the other five were lost in a storm. They're probably, well, I don't know where," Knuckles said, knowing that they would be hard to find. Malachite, however, was busy looking at the Master Emerald, trying to get a feel for it, clearing its influence so she could find the five not found yet. As Knuckles gave Sonic his emerald, Malachite declared, "I know where three of them are!"

Where are the three emeralds? Why exactly can Malachite float? And when are there going to be some real action sequences? All will be revealed (yes, all of it) in the sixth section of… THE PENCIL RAIN.


	6. Section 6

The epic sixth section of…

**The Pencil Rain**

Author's note: I promise there will be some action sequences in this chapter.

To summarize the last five pages: A lowly private, after falling down during basic training, discovers that there is a gigantic amount of pencils in the sky. The discovery makes its way to the President, who then notifies the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog. When he asks Tails what to do, he concludes that the only logical answer is to send the pencils into space with Chaos Control. Sonic then discovers that Eggman did not cause the pencil peril, and as Eggman and Tails work on a pencil-transporting machine, Sonic looks for the emeralds, meeting a marmot named Malachite in the forest and Knuckles in the process. That should get you past the worst of my writing so the future chapters may be more enjoyable. And now…

"Over there." Malachite had found the signal of three of the six remaining emeralds. It was no surprise they were so close, due to the fact that Knuckles had the six until recently. Her finger was pointing towards the distance, into the water. Sonic's face went from a look of confusion to bewilderment to disbelief as it dawned on him that there was no land on the other side of the area she was pointing to. Nothing but water. Sonic took a step towards the edge of the small island and peered over the huge distance below at which anything but the sea would have looked small.

Sonic asked Malachite, "Did you know I can't swim? There's no way I'm going there." Malachite just shrugged because she had no easy answer. It seemed as if they had hit a roadblock. At that point Knuckles said, "You remember I can swim, right? Guard the emerald and I'll have 'em back in no time." And with that, he effortlessly flew out into the ocean, leaving Sonic behind.

"Oh, well sure I remembered that," Sonic said perfectly normally. Malachite responded by rolling her eyes and floating out to sea to help Knuckles find the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic was now alone, free to run around…but no, he had to protect the Master Emerald. Immediately, he felt the burden that Knuckles had to deal with every day: constrained to one spot, only getting to leave when trouble struck. Sonic first sat there, doing nothing, then as boredom set in, he started twiddling his thumbs, his boredom growing by the minute…

Meanwhile, Knuckles swam for what seemed like hours, his breathing device and Malachite being the only things visible. Meanwhile, Knuckles looked to his left, intending to get a closer look at the mysterious marmot, but only getting past the head. She seemed to be breathing, but she had no apparatus to speak of. Since she appeared okay, and there was no way to speak anyway, Knuckles put it out of his mind, instead focusing on the blue that was rapidly turning to black around them. Malachite tried her best to keep calm, but she was lost, with only the emeralds' presence and her sense of gravity as a guide. This was more than Knuckles had, for he had lost both and subsequently felt something big and rough hit him on the head. The enveloping pitch black meant Knuckles saw nothing. He could, however, deduce that the thing he hit was a rock, and that he had hit bottom. Malachite at first held his hand to pull him towards the target.

After what seemed to be another hour of swimming, Knuckles let out as much of a yell as he could while submerged. The reason: another rock. This one was smooth and vertical, and it seemed as if it was large enough to be the size of a good-sized building. Malachite now felt that the emeralds were close by, past the rock wall that was still the same color of everything else: pitch black. She had heard from dumb hikers who traveled through the forest she inhabited that there were fish with lights on their heads, a watery version of the fireflies she often chatted with late in the evenings. Maybe there were some close by. Malachite tried to tune her thoughts to the fish. There were some close by, and soon there was the first light the two had seen in twenty minutes (the speed of their swimming was another of Malachite's unique abilities.) Before long, the wall was revealed by the light of an immense number of anglerfish. Knuckles was not paying attention to the wall, however. His thoughts were instead on the marmot to his left. He thought, "First she flies, then she swims at breakneck speeds, and now this. I've never seen anyone do these things. Maybe it's the unique situation, but…" Then his attention turned to the wall, which immediately grabbed a hold of his attention.

Spanning a width and height that would beat out any medieval castle, its coral-decorated façade was, incredibly, built into the strange rock wall in front of them. Perfectly squared out, the rock had been smoothed to make a rectangle as flat as a pancake. The pair floated in awe of the structure. For some strange reason, Malachite felt compelled to enter, emeralds or not. She knew something she had always wanted was there…

Sonic had by now run up what would have been a formidable score to beat in hackey-sack, since no matter where the ball went, he could dash to it to squeeze in another kick. He was about to kick it for the 300th time when a voice stopped him.

"Hey there. How's it going?" a voice all too familiar to Sonic said from behind the emerald. "Wow, Knuckles, this place looks amazing. Have you seen- Sonic!" Before he knew it, Sonic was receiving another of Amy Rose's bear hugs, certainly not pleasing Sonic. "I knew I'd find you! I have to tell you what happened to my friend Birdie."

"Hey Amy, I haven't seen you in a while." _Much to my delight_, he thought. "I'm guarding the Master Emerald while Knuckles goes to find some Chaos Emeralds out there in the ocean."

"Are you trying to find them to try and stop the pencils from falling?" Amy asked, not losing a bit of her bubbly cheeriness. "I heard it's going to be really bad, and I thought this might help." As she said this, she produced a Chaos Emerald from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Aah! Where did you get that? Did you…?" Sonic tried to think of where in the world she could have gotten that from.

"My friend Birdie finally found her parents inside those robots that Dr. Eggman had. In her locket she had this emerald."

"Hmm. If I return this to Tails on the other side of the ruins, I can let him know what is going on. It should only be a few minutes. I'll be right back. Guard the island, OK? That hammer is pretty strong. Bye." While Sonic ran off, Amy tried hard not to faint. What kept her on her feet was a presence that was rolling across the bridge…

Thank you for reading the epic Section 6 of my story. Next time, there'll be more action, more suspense, and Malachite's secret past: partially revealed! All in Piece 7 of… THE PENCIL RAIN.


	7. Piece 7

The epic seventh piece of…

**The Pencil Rain**

Amy stared at the thing coming up the bridge at her. It was a robot, with an appearance similar to that of Zero, the robot that had chased her a few months back. It was purple, however, and the side said "E-222 Psi" on it. She thought, "It must be another one of Eggman's robots. I was able to defeat the other one, but this time I have no electrical fence. It can hover, so I can't push it off the edge. What do I do?" After a split second, she got a burst of creative thinking going, because if Sonic saw that she could hold her own in a fight, maybe she'd get to go on a few more adventures with him…

She immediately went into a full brainstorm. What was there to do? All of a sudden, she had it. She crouched behind a marble staircase and waited for it to ascend. The robot rolled silently across the grass, so that one would think it was just a dog taking itself for a walk. It chose the nearest staircase, which Amy waited behind. Silently, she crept behind it and started to ascend behind Psi, now hovering halfway towards its goal.

Amy crouched, leapt, and swung her hammer around in the air with a trademark "Yah!" as she jumped over the robot, hitting the latch on its head and releasing the lid on the robot. She then gave it all she had hitting the blue button on the top of its head. She pounded away until she flew back. The robot hadn't even touched her, she wondered, why had she been knocked several yards back? Then she felt something in her head. Something odd, like someone else had taken the wheel…

Amy leapt to her feet and started flapping her arms, singing "I don't wanna be a chicken, I don't wanna be a duck, so I shake my butt!" After clapping four times, she came to, realizing this was going to be a harder battle that she'd previously thought. This thing wasn't called Psi for no reason; it had mind-controlling circuits built in!

Malachite swam upwards, looking for a way in. She knew it was there, and she remembered it clearly. How she had never been here in her life and yet know this astounded her, and by extension Knuckles. Giving another kick, she set to observing the wall. Looking around, she saw a crack in the rock face. Tracing it with her finger, a door suddenly jarred at the bottom. Knuckles noticed the door and started to swim in, joined by Malachite a few seconds later as the door closed behind them. Knuckles thought to himself, "This just keeps getting stranger and stranger…"

The duo turned a corner, then another corner, meanwhile not seeing the light of day, or anything else for that matter. Every time a corner came, Malachite took it as if she knew the route for all of her life. It was becoming clear to Knuckles that these twists and turns were for the purpose of confusing intruders. But why would there be intruders? Who would build this? Was this some sort of Atlantean city hidden beneath the surface?

Light soon appeared as Malachite and Knuckles kicked it into high gear. Knuckles wanted to dry off; Malachite wanted the thing at the end of the tunnel. Finally, they surfaced, looking around. Knuckles's hunch was right; it was some sort of Atlantis. Polished white marble formed the streets; red marked off the edges. It was stormy outside when they entered, but here the sky was clear blue; not a cloud to be seen. Foliage and greenery was everywhere; buildings had the most magnificent architecture. Canals separated the circular city into concentric rings. Marmots like Malachite walked the streets. If there ever was a utopia, this would be the place to have it. Total isolation, no war, no problems period. Knuckles felt like an intruder, feeling that the only thing that could happen was bad in such a perfect place. He remembered his own people, figuring that he and Malachite's goals were the same: protect the things precious to them and the honor of their people. The building floating on the center platform had to be the leader's residence. They quietly decided to dive below the surface so as not to attract attention. Malachite knew now why she knew this place so well: She was from here. She had been sent out with the eventual aim of her returning here, and reconnecting with everything she was a part of. But she was a part of the forest already: would she have to choose?

They slowly made their way to the building and then climbed up on the platform it was on. There was no door, something that struck Knuckles funny. Anyone could waltz in and mess with government records, right? No, he realized, people here are too good. Nobody would think of that. It was all so odd, how the overwhelming goodness of the place seemed to fly in the face of everything sensible and real. This couldn't just be a fake setup, could it? But it wasn't, it never could be. How this was able to exist, he had no idea. As they walked to the other side of the room, a teleportation device took them to a room at the top. There was a big marmot at the other end of the room, who looked at them strangely, no doubt because of Knuckles's presence. What he said then, much to the surprise of Knuckles, was:

"Malachite? My daughter, is that you?"

Author: You know the drill; I own none of this stuff. Except for what you know I own. Chuck 8 will be even better. Larry


End file.
